Yom Ha'atzmaut: One Year Before Yedid

As May quickly approaches, I already feel eager to end the school and attend summer camp. I find it difficult to imagine my emotions at this time next year. In the summer of 2013, I will complete my years as a camper with a month-long trip to Israel. Since both Jews in the diaspora and Israelis celebrated Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israeli independence day) yesterday, I find it appropriate to reflect on this exciting expedition approaching in my near future. I attend a camp in New York’s Catskills Mountains, and we focus and build activities around three main ideals; Judaism, Socialism, and Zionism. On this trip called Yedid (friend in Hebrew), the camp explores aspects of each of these pillars. We go to kibbutzim to see socialism in practice. On the kibbutz, farmers work together for the betterment of the community over profit. Additionally, we see all the common tourists sights, some dating back to the days of ancient Judaea. We climb Massada, and the group walks around the holy sites at Jerusalem. In just a month’s time, I will explore the entirety of Israel, and I believe the days until then go by way too slowly. Every year, I see campers return with wonderful stories about Yedid. Going with Hashomer Hatzair, the organization that runs my camp, I experience the country from a truly Israeli perspective movement. This movement exists in Israel, and many locals come to the States. Some accompany us throughout the trip, showing us the inner secrets of the Holy Land. The trip offers a more valuable way to see Israel, touring “between the lines”. Last summer and the one prior, I met some of my best friends in the world. We live across the world from Tel Aviv to Philadelphia, and spending the summer together in this unifying place for all Jews bonds us together, even if our camp years end when we return to school in September. We started as a group of individuals with solely two similarities; our age and our varying practices of Judaism. Now, we approach this crux of our experience, learning more about each other every day. I most importantly want to travel to Israel before I matriculate at a rabbinical school. All rabbis need to study abroad in the Holy Land for one year. If everything occurs according to plan, this trip requires me to study Israel from an academic viewpoint. Going on both trips allow me to enjoy the country in two distinctly different ways. I want to go after undergraduate school, but I also know visiting during the summer relieves me of any pressure I feel from September to June. As 2013 quickly approaches, the glorious opportunities Yedid bestows upon me entice me every day. Until next July, I intend to wade my Israel-free days in a strategic manner. While I remain untouched by the glory of Israel, I plan to embrace my fully Jewish-American identity. I know Israel purely through the media and friends. The media depicts Israel as a war-stricken disaster, but I know it differs from this idea. From teachers and fellow campers, I hear Israel shines in the desert sun with beauty akin to that of a great painter. Rumors tell me the country mystifies any Jew wishing to learn about their roots. However, I want to arrive in Israel prepared for the journey. Although I find it difficult to balance my studies of English and Spanish for class and Hebrew as a hobby, I hope to acquaint myself with many more useful Hebrew phrases. Of course, I love my camp, and I expect to share as many great days with my peers as last summer in the coming months. Once the age group above us departs for Israel in late July, we dominate the camp as its oldest children. In those last few weeks, the camp requires us to write a play, create a closing ceremony, and plan a camp-wide activity. It takes teamwork to accomplish these tasks, but we will need this when we trek Israel in its 65th year of existence.